Ability Awareness

Last week a friend of mine invited me to hear a couple of people speaking at the local university.  They were focusing attention on the issues that people with disabilities face.  Both speakers were born with birth defects.  They described the kind of obstacles that might have caused them to be bitter, filled with self pity and anger.  I can't say that I wouldn't have responded that way.  But these two men, rather than focusing on their disabilities, saw the abilities that God gave them.  The ability for one to play baseball, the other football.  Both men played college ball, one played professionally for four years.  Neither allowed his disability to handicap him.  In fact, it seemed that his disability made each of them more aware of his abilities than he might have been otherwise.

As one of the speakers said, we are all born with handicaps.  His was visible.  Not all impairments can be seen.  Sometimes the biggest handicaps people face aren't physical.  They are the handicaps of fear, doubt, distrust, rejection, hopelessness, and despair.  How do we overcome those handicaps and keep them from robbing us from achieving what God has planned for us?

Do we overcome by focusing on our limitations and our disabilities?  Or do we overcome by focusing on our strengths and our abilities?  I am inclined to believe that you get more of what you focus on.  The best way to grow your fear (or insecurity, or hurt, or whatever is holding you back) is to focus on it.  When you do that, it is like you feed it with the attention you give to it.  Or, you can choose to starve it by focusing on God, the abilities that He has placed within you, and the power and strength that is yours in Him.

What is your disability?  Recognize it for what it is.  Then turn your attention to your abilities.  I empathize with those with disabilities and support efforts to raise awareness of their struggles.  But maybe it would also be helpful for us all to set aside our own Ability Awareness Week.  To focus on the potential within us, both through what we are born with along with what the Holy Spirit gives to us.  Concentrate on God's strength and abilities that He has placed within you to help you overcome whatever threatens to disable you from achieving your goals and dreams.  

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. -- Philippians 4:13.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. -- 1 John 5:4